12 October 2006, by PowerNell. I am speechless. I was convinced the government did everything they could to solve the power crisis. But... on June 23 this year SOMEONE in the government must have signed a contract with a company that apparently doesnt exist. This was reveiled Tuesday by The Citizen. A "senior diplomat in Dar es Salaam" told The Citizen in confidence that Richmond might be "a mailbox company". The American company is unknown at the U.S.A. department that registers private corporations, it is not able to secure a bank guarantee, it has only four employees, it cannot be reached by phone or e-mail, and the Tanzanian power deal is 344 times more than the officially quoted trading worth of Richmond. O yes, and the owners are an economist from Pakistan, Dr Mohammed Hugue, and a Tanzanian born businessman, Mohamed Gire. What a coincidence, a TANZANIAN born businessman!

Smells like... a mess

It is so messy. Tanzania orders a $ 172 million emergency generator at a non-existing company of a Tanzanian businessman. I am not the only one that is shocked by this, the whole of Dar es Salaam is talking about it and I appear to be one of the most positive thinking people, when it comes to the government. In yesterday"s Daily News for instance there was a furious column of an Adam Lusekelo (click here if you are interested). One of his remarks struck me: "And...jamani, can"t Waswahili order diesel generators from abroad? Try me. I could order Tanzania some generators. Why should foreigners do everything for us?" Well Adam, actually this generator WAS ordered BY a Tanzanian FROM a Tanzanian.

Calculation: power will not be back before January

Whatever the details are, the result is that we will stay in the dark for some more months. The Richmond emergency generators were supposed to save us from power rationing. They were our main hope. The government will probably order emergency generators elsewhere, but that will take some time. The Richmond generators were expected to be installed before the end of this year. I did some calculation, deduction and combination, and I don"t see how the power situation is going to improve before January next year. Actually I don"t see how it is going to improve before July next year, unless there will be a lot of rain and a lot of other emergency generators. In July 2007 – but some sources say early 2007 or November 2007 – a new natural gas-fired power plant is expected. It is ordered at a Finnish company called Wartsila. They have a website, www.wartsila.com, check it out if you don"t trust it.
 
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